Doctors disrespect Male nurses.

SNmurse · Aug 27, 2012

I was actually treated with high regard from Doctors as a Student Nurse, whenever they would perform a bedside procedure, I'd be the only student to observe. I know it isn't fair to the female students, but I took it as an excellent learning experience and payback for all the harassment I had received from my classmates.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Aug 27, 2012

Hi,
I'm a male nursing student, and I was wondering whether this it true.
Do Doctors in hospitals, male or female disrespect male nurses because they look at these males as dumb and not smart enough to become a doctor ?
Do doctors disrespect male nurses in general?
I am not trying to come off as offensive since I am training to be a male nurse as well, it is just that this is an insecurity that has plagued me for a year now and i thought that it is just one of those things that just disappears, but it has not.
thank you and I look forward to being part of this site.

You're in training to be a male nurse -- just curious about how that differs from training to be a female nurse. Or a nurse in general?

I haven't found that doctors disrespect males more than females; in fact the opposite has often been true. In general, though, if you know what you're doing, have your ducks lined up before you call them and treat them with friendliness and respect, you won't have any trouble getting along with doctors.

fridgelight · Sep 6, 2012

I asked quite a few males nurses about how they were treated by male doctors and their responses were always favorable. I never asked about female doctors though.

MrsMD · Sep 6, 2012

I recently witnessed a 80% male cardiology nurse unit tend to my husband during his heart attack. Their communication skills with their colleagues and Doctors was professional. My husband who is a physician was impressed with the caliber of the care he received. As an RN I was proud of our profession, if you are good at what you do, it doesn't matter what gender you are. You will earn the respect by those worthy of your admiration.

Jimmyjuice · Sep 6, 2012

Something really scary happened. My parents found out that Ii have been doing nursing for a year an a half. They have forced be to un-enroll..I am no longer able to be a nurse. I'm most saddened by this. I have one of those competitive Indian parents who pick out your career based on you gender. Anything I can say to convince my parents to let me do nursing again or should I just give it some time ? I could have helped all these patients and I even heard that you could become a nurse anesthetist( that's what I wanted to do).

I am thinking of doing paramedics and then once I have enough money, I can move out and become a nurse. Think that is a reasonable plan here ?

BTW I found that this is true. The only piece of discrimination I got was from the Indian nurses who believe that Indian males should not be nurses. Otherwise the doctors and other nurses were really nice and friendly to me. I even had a nice chat with a very experienced male doctor after i finished by clinical placement.

Mas Catoer · Sep 6, 2012

Something really scary happened. My parents found out that Ii have been doing nursing for a year an a half. They have forced be to un-enroll..I am no longer able to be a nurse. I'm most saddened by this. I have one of those competitive Indian parents who pick out your career based on you gender. Anything I can say to convince my parents to let me do nursing again or should I just give it some time ? I could have helped all these patients and I even heard that you could become a nurse anesthetist( that's what I wanted to do).
I am thinking of doing paramedics and then once I have enough money, I can move out and become a nurse. Think that is a reasonable plan here ?
BTW I found that this is true. The only piece of discrimination I got was from the Indian nurses who believe that Indian males should not be nurses. Otherwise the doctors and other nurses were really nice and friendly to me. I even had a nice chat with a very experienced male doctor after i finished by clinical placement.

Hi Jimmy.

I've been a male nurse for 32 years now.

If you show up working in normal to full scale nursing competencies. Not only doctors, everyone around will respect you.

A bit strange to me if you said Indian male and female seen as differences in taking nursing as a profession. In 1992 to 1995 I worked with many male and female Indian nurses. I didn't see any of those problem you mentioned.

If any then it's time to break it up. Wish you luck Jimmy.

Mas Catoer.

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · Oct 2, 2012

If you know what you are doing and follow nursing standards then what is the doctor going to say? If the doc is rude well who cares. They are under a hell of a lot of stress as well. If you are careful, hardworking, responsible, and polite...well what can they say? When i call a doc I have my ducks in a row. I know my VS, interventions attempted, ACUTE change, and any suggestions I have. If you call and are like "umm..well..umm." yeah..you are going to get lit up. So don't worry about the docs. Worry about your patient and what is best for them. I will gladly get chewed out by a doc if I know I am doing what is in the patients best interest.

medicmikern · Oct 3, 2012

CoolhandHutch said it all !! Well worded.

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Oct 4, 2012

I have been at this for 17 years, and I've never had an issue with a doctor because of my gender. I butted heads with a couple because they were being jerks and not giving their patients proper care, but that is a different issue.

OwlieO.O · Oct 26, 2012

I have been an RN for 23 years now, and I have never noticed any doctor disrespecting a male nurse, nor have I ever heard a male nurse say that he thought he was treated disrepectfully. Stop worrying. I doubt very seriously that any doctor is going to look at you and wonder why you weren't smart enough to be a doctor. Doctors have their own careers to deal with, and are not going to be concerned with yours! You will gain their respect in time. On the other hand, we have a lot of foreign doctors where I work, and I have noticed some of them do not respect female nurses. There is such a vast culture difference between the US and the countries where some of these doctors are from, and they seem to carry that with them. Females are not treated equally in some countries, as you know. I know several doctors who have sons that are RN's. We have lots of male nurses where I work.

This ^

And I believe as far as how competitive it is to get into nursing school, including the median GPA being ~3.8 for entering nursing students in my area, that I would say nurses getting in now could probably get into med school if they're not completely terrible at chemistry.

Dafabb, LPN · Oct 26, 2012

I think it is mostly the personality of the Dr. The different culture of many of the foreign Dr. are reserved. It takes a long time to get warmed up by them. I don't think that any Dr has a problem with a Male nurse unless they have a God complex than they have trouble with all nurses. I have only seen one of them in my 35 yrs. So when you have trouble with a Dr. just treat them like your good friend and most likely they will come around. Do what is neccessary for that Dr. No small talk except hi yes sir..blah blah. And never take it personally unless you know that it is!

Rhi007 · Nov 11, 2012

Just remember this 'behind every good doctor is an even greater nurse'